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IEC Still Without A Media And Public Relations Department

Election watchdogs on Thursday strongly criticized the Independent Election Commission (IEC) over its failure to establish a media and public relations department and appoint a spokesman.

They said the absence of a spokesman and a media department forces journalists to contact the IEC leadership which in turn makes their work more difficult as it is time consuming to gather information about the elections.

Observers said that most of the time the IEC leadership refuses to speak to the media and do not answer their phones.

Observers said the only way to build the public’s confidence in the election process is to keep the people informed about the activities of the election commission.

“One of the core components of the lack of interest among the people in the voter registration process is that they do not have sufficient information about the election commission and the commission has failed to regain the confidence we lost,” said Sughra Saadat, spokesman for the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).

“The environment is just one of criticism and doubt, there is still a gap of information to convince the people and clarify the discussions, the good and bad of the process,” said Yousuf Rashid, CEO of FEFA.

Meanwhile the former attorney general of Afghanistan Abdul Jabbar Sabit has accused the government of attempting to interfere in the elections.

“We saw what the president did while appointing the election commissioners and what he is doing now with the appointment of the head of the secretariat, I don’t call the election commission an independent electoral commission, instead I call it a dependent election commission,” said Sabit.

IEC statistics meanwhile show that up to now more than five million Afghans have registered across the country to vote in the October 20 elections. 

IEC Still Without A Media And Public Relations Department

Election watchdogs claim there is still a serious lack of confidence on the part of the public in the election process.

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Election watchdogs on Thursday strongly criticized the Independent Election Commission (IEC) over its failure to establish a media and public relations department and appoint a spokesman.

They said the absence of a spokesman and a media department forces journalists to contact the IEC leadership which in turn makes their work more difficult as it is time consuming to gather information about the elections.

Observers said that most of the time the IEC leadership refuses to speak to the media and do not answer their phones.

Observers said the only way to build the public’s confidence in the election process is to keep the people informed about the activities of the election commission.

“One of the core components of the lack of interest among the people in the voter registration process is that they do not have sufficient information about the election commission and the commission has failed to regain the confidence we lost,” said Sughra Saadat, spokesman for the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (FEFA).

“The environment is just one of criticism and doubt, there is still a gap of information to convince the people and clarify the discussions, the good and bad of the process,” said Yousuf Rashid, CEO of FEFA.

Meanwhile the former attorney general of Afghanistan Abdul Jabbar Sabit has accused the government of attempting to interfere in the elections.

“We saw what the president did while appointing the election commissioners and what he is doing now with the appointment of the head of the secretariat, I don’t call the election commission an independent electoral commission, instead I call it a dependent election commission,” said Sabit.

IEC statistics meanwhile show that up to now more than five million Afghans have registered across the country to vote in the October 20 elections. 

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